NEW YORK CITY: Uber Temporarily Undercuts Fares Of Yellow Cabs

Uber has temporarily slashed its rates to just below those of New York City's licensed yellow cabs.

“UberX is now cheaper than an NYC taxi,” Uber proclaimed on its website on Monday. “From Brooklyn to the Bronx, and everywhere in between, UberX is now the most affordable ride in the city.” The move — an aggressive bid to capture an even bigger share of the city’s taxi riders — is a slap in the face to taxi drivers, whose prices are regulated. “Uber is taking over,” cabbie Ricardo Lopez, 60, a Staten Island resident, said after hearing the news about the Uber price cuts. “Uber is our biggest competition. They are making all the money for themselves.” “This is the type of competition that yellow taxis and green borough taxis cannot fairly compete with,” David King, an assistant professor of urban planning at Columbia University, told the Daily News.

Uber's new fares are from $1 - $5 lower than yellow cabs, depending on the length of the ride. The company won't say how much longer the lower fares will last.

RELATED: There are currently about 13,500 licensed yellow cabs on the streets of New York City. The price of a taxi medallion can exceed one million dollars.

Angry Cab Drivers Gridlock Major European Cities In Protest Over Uber App

Via the Guardian:

Several major European cities ground to a halt on Wednesday as licensed taxi drivers took to the streets in mass protests against the smartphone taxi app Uber. Demonstrations in London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Milan and Rome caused travel chaos and long tailbacks, as taxi drivers protested against the app, which they argue is unregulated and threatens their livelihood. In London, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall were jammed from the start of the planned "go slow" at 2pm, as thousands of black cabs gathered honking their horns, bringing total gridlock to the centre of the capital, while supporters waved banners and started occasionally chanting: "Boris, out!" A spokeswoman for Uber, the US start-up which links minicab drivers to passengers via a GPS-based smartphone app, said the protests had boosted new users in London by 850%, as people tried to cope with the gridlock.

CHICAGO: Taxi Group Threatens To Out Five Gay Aldermen Over Ride-Sharing Plan

CBS Chicago reports that a trade newspaper for the local taxi industry is threatening to out five "closeted homosexual" Chicago city aldermen over their support for ride-sharing services like Uber. But this is probably all a prank.

In an editorial in The Chicago Dispatcher, publisher George Lutfallah said the trade publication “has learned that five of the city’s 50 aldermen are closeted homosexuals. In the next issue of this newspaper, set to be published early next month, we will disclose their names unless our demands are met.” Among a list of 10 demands, Lutfallah said he wants the city to ban ride-sharing services, and to “actively enforce” the current regulations for taxis. “The city is moving forward and will steamroll our industry if we don’t act in earnest. They did it to my grandfather more than a hundred years ago when they destroyed his horse-drawn-carriage business by allowing horseless machines to carry people around the city,” he wrote.

If you read the full editorial, you'll see that Lutfallah also claims that these allegedly gay aldermen watch Duck Dynasty and eat at Chick-Fil-A. He also demands that the city "change the name back to Sears Tower" and says that women should not be allowed to drive. Joke or not, Equality Illinois wants an apology.

"This is an outrageous attempt to blackmail the city of Chicago and scornfully humiliate members of the Chicago City Council. However this article was intended, it is no joking matter. We call on the publication to immediately retract its extremely offensive article and apologize to the city’s LGBT community, women drivers and customers, the City Council and the public at large. Such comments strike at the core of communities that are still fighting for full recognition and equality."

NYC Taxi Drivers Beefcake Calendar

Yes, this is also a thing.

We took to the streets of New York to photograph some of the city’s best-humored taxi drivers. These gentlemen put a face to one of the most dedicated workforces in NYC, driving day and night to transport New Yorkers and our guests alike. 100% of net sales proceeds will go to University Settlement, America’s oldest settlement house (1886), based on New York City’s Lower East Side and serving over 30,000 immigrant and working individuals and families every year with basic services like quality education, housing, and literacy programs.

(Via JMG reader Osman)

Meet NYC's New Taxi

Promo clip by Nissan. I will always miss the Crown Vics.

Taxi Fares Compared By City

USA Today reports on taxi fares around the nation.

At USA TODAY's request, TaxiFareFinder.com calculated estimated one-mile, five-mile and 10-mile fares in the 60 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Fares in Honolulu, San Jose and San Francisco are among the highest. Fares in Detroit, Dallas and Pittsburgh are among the lowest.

The most expensive one-mile estimated fares are $8.01 in San Jose and $7.78 in Honolulu and San Francisco. The cheapest? It's $3.70 in Tulsa and $4.35 in Detroit. Honolulu has the highest estimated five- and 10-mile fares — $24.92 and $41.61. The least-expensive estimated five-mile fare is $12.55 in Tulsa; the cheapest estimated 10-mile fare — $19.97 — is in Detroit.

Above are the five mile fares. Hit the link for an interactive chart and the other 40 cities. I'm surprised to see NYC so far down on the list.

Afternoon View - Penn Station Cab Stand

Always a clusterfuck.

Cabbie Canned Over Fare Refusal

As New Yorkers well know, it's illegal for cab drivers to refuse fares to the outer boroughs. But we also know that it happens all the time. One such refusal has just lost a longtime driver his hack license after surveillance video showed him physically ejecting his Queens-bound passenger onto the street. Somehow the driver hasn't been charged with assault.

NYC Loses Last Hint Of Checkered Cabs

NYC's new taxi design removes the last vestige of the old checkered cabs. Even the oft puzzled over "AXI" is going away. The New York Times reacts:

What’s next? “T Driver,” starring Robert De Niro? Not likely, even though the new logotype for medallion taxis, which is beginning to appear on New York streets, has eliminated the word “taxi” in favor of a bold yellow T in a black circle; an enlarged version of the symbol first adopted five years ago. David S. Yassky, the chairman of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, sounded confident on Tuesday that the change would not confound anyone. “We have no doubt that a yellow car with a roof light with a big T will be understood as a New York City taxicab,” he said. “Even the greenest of greenhorns will know that it’s a taxicab.”

Also gone is the fare rate card on the door, which nobody ever read anyway.

NYC Cab Hailing App Launched

Most of my cab issues have to do with hundreds of people hailing at the same post-event time, so I can't see this being much help in Manhattan. But it could be great in the outer boroughs.

So far, out of more than 13,000 yellow taxis on the road, 1,000 drivers have signed-up for the app and say they’re excited. Driver Shareef Hussein said he was one of the first to download the driver version of the app, which he would have to pay a separate fee to use. “It’s going to help us like when you go outer borough, it’s going to be very helpful to us because you know sometime we’re going to have to come back empty,” he said. Another cab driver is already using the app and said he likes it so far. “Now you know the location for the clients who need a cab. Why not go to pick them up if you drive by?” cabbie Roland Sainristil told Hsu.

Get the app here.

NYC Eyes Taxi Fare Hike

New York City's cab fares may go up by 20% before the start of summer.

The city Taxi & Limousine Commission will consider a proposal next week to boost taxi fares for the first time since allowing a 24% increase in 2006. “The fare hasn’t changed since 2006, so it is reasonable for taxi drivers and fleet owners to put this on the table,” TLC chairman David Yassky said. “We will consider their petitions over the next couple of months.” A public hearing to jack up fares 16% to 20% will be held May 31 at the TLC’s Beaver St. office in lower Manhattan. Owners of the city’s more than 13,000 cabs and driver representatives asked the TLC to consider the proposal. Sources say TLC board members will likely pass the fare bump. If approved, the hike could be imposed by the summer. The base fare for a yellow taxi is now $2.50, plus $2 a mile. The average trip of 2.76 miles now costs riders $11.82. That trip would cost more than $14 if a 20% hike were imposed.

Smart Phone App: Report A Taxi

Gothamist points us to this handy app.

NYC's New Taxi Debuts

As I blogged about several times last year, New York City held a contest to replace its fleet of Crown Victoria taxis, which are no longer being built. My personal favorite, the futuristic entry from Turkey, was not selected. The winning Nissan entry debuted this week at the New York Auto Show.

The city’s first purpose-built cab will host myriad bespoke features calibrated to the distinctive needs of New York’s taxi users. These include a standard driver’s navigation system that will preclude ever again having to explain which numbered streets precede and follow West 17th, a panoramic glass roof for staring up at the young men on those Hollister billboards, a low-annoyance horn tuned to a frequency that’s only audible to other cabbies (or so we hope), one 12-volt and two USB charging ports so all your batteries will be as fresh as the scent inside the cabin, fuel-economy numbers that double those of the neolithic Ford, and antibacterial pleather seats that provide lower rates of Ebola transmission than most other fabrics.

Meh. I guess the USB port is a nice touch, but I can't see the average taxi ride providing useful charging time. And that glass roof is gonna be a bitch in the summertime.

Hackers Hit NYC Cabs

Bad news for lots of people:

Global Payments—a massive international credit-card processor—has confirmed that it suffered a massive security breach. Hackers managed to acquire customer information from up to 1.5 million accounts across North America. As far as we know, every major credit card provider is affected.

Worse news for New Yorkers:

In this case, it seems those most at risk of having had their information compromised are people who paid for an NYC cab ride over the last several months. The only detail Global Payments confirmed was the extent of the damage, though, not the origination. Or, more importantly, how to find out if you're affected.

I use my card in cabs about twenty times a month. At least. Guess I better check my statement. Shit. (Tipped by JMG reader Birdie)

NYC To End Taxi Light Confusion

The "Off Duty" light on NYC cabs means the vehicle is out of service. Except for when you are going the same direction as the cabbie's route home. Or except for when the cabbie wants to make sure you aren't going to, horrors, Brooklyn. All that is about to end.

Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman David Yassky said Tuesday medallion owners will be directed this fall to start removing the signs and adopting a simpler way of indicating whether a cab is available. Under the current scheme, the cab-top signs have four different potential meanings depending on whether either or both the off-duty lights and the medallion number light are illuminated. “It’s far too confusing for the average rider,” Yassky told the Daily News. Under the new system, the cab-top signs will have only two potential meanings: available if the medallion number is lit, or unavailable if it’s dark.

Many times I've had cabs stop for me with their "off duty" light on, only to peel out when they don't like my destination. But sometimes they don't, so New Yorkers are trained to flail uselessly at any cab light configuration. Hurray for the TLC.

iPads In NYC Taxis?

Probably.

The city may ditch the blaring taxi TVs that drive passengers and cabbies nuts and replace them with iPads, officials said yesterday. A private company has proposed a pilot program that would remove the current screens — which run a continuous loop of local news segments and commercials from TV stations — and install the tablet computers, city officials told The Post. It would be tried out in 50 cabs. “It sounds better than this,” said Orlando Morales, a cabby for two decades, as he pointed to the screen in the back of his yellow taxi. “It’s all the same garbage over and over. It drives me nuts listening to this shit all day long.”

Any New Yorker will tell you that first thing they do after hailing a cab is turn off that fucking TV screen. The tourists, of course, love them.

The Etiquette Of Upstreaming

Upstreaming is the tactic of walking past the person who has been waiting for a cab longer than you have. It's also the cause of a lot of late night street fights. But according to one etiquette expert, upstreaming is sometimes permissible. From Henry Alford's new book:

That New Yorkers cut in lines and steal cabs is not, on the whole, news to foreigners, many of whom face such chicanery in their own countries. But what did strike them as interesting was my assertion that if they ever need a cab, they will need to be willing to steal one from someone else. A German woman who was visiting her daughter in New York responded: “Oh, so it is a game of dirty poker that you play!” To wit, it is my belief that if indeed you are in great need of a cab — you’re late for an appointment, or it is raining, or it is two in the morning and you are standing on a dicey part of Flatbush — then it is permissible to walk upstream of another party that is also hailing a cab, as long as you walk far enough upstream that that party cannot see you. Well, at least not glare at you. “But they might walk up there and see you!” the German woman told me. “Yes,” I said. “But the trained assassin is both methodical and efficient.”

NYC Cabs Worth $1 Million

These days the safest investment might be a New York City taxi.

A New York City taxi medallion is a tin plate that grants a person the right to operate a yellow cab. On Wednesday, two medallions were sold for $1 million each, the highest price ever. In 1937 when the first medallion was issued, it went for $10. New York City has sold 13,237 medallions over the years. The new ones, when issued, are sold at auction. What this means is that the largest fleets, which often control hundreds of medallions, can easily secure financing. Medallion sales are one of the city's big businesses. In fact, the biggest lender, Medallion Financial, is a publicly traded company and shares a Madison Avenue skyscraper with the Rockefeller Family Fund.

A million bucks for the right to drive a cab. The vehicle is extra.

NYC To Begin Zone Rates For Taxis

With all of mass transit out of service, today New York City's Taxi & Limousine Commission ordered livery cabs and taxis to switch to a zoned fare system. Zoned fares begin tomorrow morning and metered rides will continue until then. Twitter users have already begun reporting major cab fare ripoffs since the subways closed down at noon. As in "$50 to go downtown."

Here's the PDF of the temporary rules.

NYC's "Taxi Of Tomorrow" Chosen

After a year-long contest to pick a replacement for the discontinued Ford Crown Victoria, New York City has selected a boring-ass Nissan minivan as its new "taxi of tomorrow." Passed over was the much cooler futuristic entry from Turkey's Karsan, which had pledged to manufacture its taxis in Brooklyn. Nissan now gets a ten-year exclusive contract to provide taxis to the city. Advocates for the disabled are quite unhappy because unlike the Turkish entry, the winning vehicle isn't wheelchair-accessible.